GENETIC VARIATION IN ACTIVITY OF THE ENZYMES OF GLYCOLYSIS AND GLUCONEOGENESIS BETWEEN INBRED STRAINS OF MICE

Grahame Bulfield ¹, Elizabeth A. Moore ¹, and Henrik Kacser ¹

¹ Institute of Animal Genetics, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JN

Variation in the activity of 21 liver and 15 erythrocyte enzymes between seven inbred strains of mice has been studied in a single area of metabolism, glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. Most of the variation between the strains is genetic. From the variation within and between inbred strains heritabilities (H²) were determined. Out of 35, 26 showed significant values above 0.4. A comparison with previously published work suggests that enzyme activities have mainly dominance and interaction components of variance, and this is discussed in relation to the variation in quantitative characters such as growth. In nine of the pairwise comparisons of the strains, the activity of the enzyme varied more than two-fold. In these cases the genetics and biochemistry of the enzyme was studied; F₂ progeny were produced and assessed for segregation, and the heat stability of the enzyme was determined. No unequivocal segregation was observed, although in one case we found a considerable difference in heat stability. The variations found were not considered to be great enough to be useful as models of human inborn errors of metabolism or to study metabolic control. If such variants are to be found, sources of variation other than inbred strains must be used.